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Friday, August 20, 2010

BMW Chief Designer Adrian Van Hooydonk talked to Wallpaperabout the upcoming Megacity Vehicle (MCV) and the future green BMW sub-brand. Here is a link to BMWBLOG about the discussion. The 2013 BMW Megacity car is the first all electric BMW that will be offered for sale. The ActiveE that I am writing about here is basically a test vehicle that will have all the Megacity components in it and people like me will be driving the car for about a year to give BWM real world feedback and endurance-test the components so when they do sell the car, buyers will have an awesome, finished product! The ActiveE program will start spring/summer of 2011 when the MINI-E electric car program that I am currently in ends.

Monday, August 9, 2010

The above ad was banned by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) because they thought is was misleading. The argument they presented is because most people that drive the car will need to get electricity from the grid which burns mostly coal for generation so the car is responsible for emissions, even if the pollution is not emitting from the car itself.

This is called the "long tailpipe" argument that EV opponents use to undermine the benefits of electric vehicles. There is some truth to it, since most electricity generation does cause emissions, but there have been countless studies that have proven how much better it is for the environment to use grid-generated electric verses gasoline. Plus, you can generate electricity from clean, renewable sources, something you can never say about gasoline.

So I have a suggestion for BMW. Deliver the first ActiveE you produce to me and I'll swap it for the MINI-E. You can then take photos of me driving the car and charging it at my home with my 8.8kwh solar PV system in the background and you can advertise how the car is truly a zero emission vehicle since it is charged exclusively from my home where I generate more than double the electric that the car will need to use. My ActiveE will be a zero emission vehicle, period!